Brown & Sharpe Changes Hit Home

April 07, 1991|By John McCarron, Financial editor.

Brown & Sharpe also had its own special set of problems. Some say the company never recovered from a 1981 strike by its union machinists. The walkout, still in effect though the workers have been replaced, was not over money so much as the company`s ability to assign workers to different tasks in a changing technical environment. The company also had been burdened with high unemployment compensation rates and the outsized cost of product liability in a litigation-happy society.

Ironically, the recent decline of the dollar has boosted sales of U.S.-made machine tools. Orders for new machines are running 15 percent over last year.

But the upturn didn`t come in time to save Brown & Sharpe`s screw-machine business. ``Brownies`` helped make America the envy of the industrialized world, but in the end, they were no match for less expensive foreign machines exported by low-wage, state-subsidized competitors.

``The Japanese have spent a lot of time and money on the manufacturing process,`` Richard Duncan, a top B & S executive, told a reporter after the announcement. ``We need more of a countrywide approach here, more cooperation between business and government. What happened to our company is only a small example of what has happened to many other companies across America.``

So Mac got out of the machine tool business just in time. He`s OK because his pension check will spend no matter what.

But back in Providence, I would guess, one more teenager is getting a job at a grocery store.